BASICS OF GEOGRAPHY (Unit – 5)

Biosphere

Earth is the only planet where life is found for this reason this planet is also known as living
planet or ‘sphere of life’. This sphere contains those qualities atmosphere, lithosphere and
hydrosphere. They all enable the life to exist on this planet. As we know this is a very small
portion of the earth where life exists. Beyond this narrow space of the earth, there is no life
forms found. The narrow zone of the earth which makes life possible, makes it important,
because of right mixture of many things - energy, some living beings and some non-living
things and their interaction. For millions of years, nature has provided some checks and
balances which sustain these life forms without any problems. But today the situation has
changed. Now this living planet is in danger. This is mainly due to unsustainable human
intervention.

Biosphere refers to the narrow zone of the earth in which all life forms exist. This is because
all the three essentials things which are required for sustenance of life are found in a right
mixture. They are land (lithosphere), air (atmosphere) and water (hydrosphere). In other
words, this narrow zone is a place where lithosphere, atmosphere and hydrosphere meet (Fig.
1). It extends vertically into the atmosphere to about 10km, downward into the ocean to
depths of about 10.4 km and into about 27,000 ft of the earth’s surface where maximum living
organism have been found. There are some
life forms which are found in extreme
conditions. Two examples of this type are
algae and thermophilic (heat loving). Algae
which is supposed to be one of the earliest
forms of life can exist even in the most hostile
environment such as frozen Antarctica. On
the other extreme side, thermophilic bacteria
usually inhabit deep sea volcanic vents having
a temperature of more than 3000C. In fact,
these bacteria cannot survive in a
temperature below boiling point. Fig. 1: Spheres of Life

The situation was not like this when the life form began. About 700 million years ago, it is
believed to have been only a narrow discontinuous land encompassing only shallow parts of
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the oceans. As per the trend of expansion of area in terms of the availability of life form, it
can be predicated that may be after a few million years, the expanse of the biosphere gets
extended beyond the upper troposphere. This shows that biosphere has been evolving over
the time. Till now we have discussed about the vertical expansion, but horizontally the
biosphere covers the entire globe, though the life may not be possible in some of the hottest
and the coldest parts. However, most living things are confined to a narrow band which
permits the capture of solar energy through the process of photosynthesis, which is essential
for any organic life. This narrow region extends from about 180-200 feet below sea level to
the highest value of snowline in Tropical and sub-tropical mountain ranges (say 6,550M above
sea levels). When it extends beyond this line, life forms become very limited. Biosphere has
three basic components. These are

A. abiotic (physical and inorganic) components.

B. biotic (organic) components and
C. energy components. Let us discuss about these three components in detail.

A. Abiotic Components

These components broadly consist of all non-living elements which are essential for the
survival of all living organisms. These are (i) lithosphere (solid part of the earth crust), (ii)
atmosphere and (iii) hydrosphere. Mineral nutrients, certain gases and water are the three
basic requirements of organic life. Soils and sediments constitute the chief reservoir of
mineral nutrients. Atmosphere constitutes the chief reservoir of gases essential for organic
life. Ocean constitutes the chief reservoir of liquid water. where all these three reservoirs
intermingle, and that area becomes the most fertile area for organic life. The upper layer of
the soil and shallow parts of the ocean constitute the most important areas, box sustaining
organic life. The upper layer of soil permits easy penetration of gases and percolation of
moisture, while shallow parts of oceans, allow penetration of sunlight, inter- mingling of
dissolved gases and nutrients from land surface and ocean bottoms.

B. Biotic Components

Plants, animals and human beings including micro- organisms constitute the three biotic
components of environment. In a way these can be called as the three sub-systems.

(i) Plants: Plants are most important among biotic components. They are the only primary
producers as they produce their own food through the process of photo synthesis and
hence are called autotrophs. Not only plants alone produce all kinds of organic matter
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but also help in cycling and recycling of organic matters and nutrients. Thus, plants are
 the major source of food as well as energy for all organisms.
(ii) Animals: While plants are the primary producers, the animals are the main consumers.
Therefore, animals are heterotrophs. There are three main functions of animals: (i) to use
organic matter made available by plants as food. (ii) to transform the food into energy
and (iii) to utilise the energy for growth and development.
(iii) Micro-organisms: These consist of a variety of micro-bacteria, fungi etc. Their numbers
are unlimited and are popularly known as decomposers. As the name suggest, these
organisms decompose the dead plants and animals and other organic matters. It is
through this process they obtain their food. Through this process of decomposition, they
differentiate and separate the complex organic matter, so that the same could be put to
re-use by the primary producers i.e., the plants.

C. Energy

This is the third and vital component of the biosphere without which life could not have been
possible on this planet. It is essential for generation and reproduction of all biological life on
this planet. All organisms in the biosphere are like machines which use energy to work and to
convert one form of energy into another. But do you know the source of such energy required
for the functioning of the biosphere? Sun is the major source of energy without which we
cannot think about the existence of the biosphere.

Biosphere as an Ecosystem

Ecology is the study of interactions between the organisms and their environment. Now, the
ecologists feel that the two components of nature–organisms and environment, are not only
related but both these components function in an orderly manner as a definite system. In
fact, the two components, organisms and environment are not distinct. For an organism,
other organisms can constitute a part of its environments. Similarly, environment can also
be modified and influenced by organisms, thus, organisms and environment are interacting
parts of a system.

Therefore, the term ecosystem is now used to describe such a system. The word eco-system
is a short form of ecological system. The term was first used by A.G. Tansley in 1935. An
ecosystem can be defined as a system of regularly interacting and interdependent
components forming a unified whole. In other words, any segment of the landscape that
includes biotic and abiotic components is known as ecosystem, if all its components are
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integrated with each other. For example, a lake or pond is an eco-system when it is considered
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in its totality and not just a water body.

Types of Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a community of organisms and their abiotic (non-living) environment.
Ecosystems can be small, such as the tide pools found near the rocky shores of many oceans,
or large, such as those found in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon in Brazil.

There are three broad categories of ecosystems based on their general environment:
freshwater, marine, and terrestrial. Within these three categories are individual ecosystem
types based on the environmental habitat and organisms present.

1. Freshwater ecosystems are the least common, occurring on only 1.8 percent of Earth’s
surface. These systems comprise lakes, rivers, streams, and springs; they are quite diverse
and support a variety of animals, plants, fungi, protists and prokaryotes.
2. Marine ecosystems are the most common, comprising 75 percent of Earth’s surface and
consisting of three basic types: shallow ocean, deep ocean water, and deep ocean
bottom. Shallow ocean ecosystems include extremely biodiverse coral reef ecosystems.
Small photosynthetic organisms suspended in ocean waters, collectively known
as phytoplankton, perform 40 percent of all photosynthesis on Earth. Deep ocean
bottom ecosystems contain a wide variety of marine organisms. These ecosystems are so
deep that light is unable to reach them.
3. Terrestrial ecosystems, also known for their diversity, are grouped into large categories
called biomes. A biome is a large-
scale community of organisms,
primarily defined on land by the
dominant plant types that exist in
geographic regions of the planet with
similar climatic conditions. Examples
of biomes include tropical
rainforests, savannas, deserts,
grasslands, temperate forests, and
tundras. Grouping these ecosystems Fig. 2: Flow of Energy in Ecosystem
into just a few biome categories
obscures the great diversity of the individual ecosystems within them. For example, the
saguaro cacti (Carnegiea gigantean) and other plant life in the Sonoran Desert, in the
United States, are relatively diverse compared with the desolate rocky desert of Boa Vista,
an island off the coast of Western Africa.In that sense, pond is a representative of small
ecosystem and biosphere is considered as the largest ecosystem. Basically, the concept
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revolves around two aspects.

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(i) First, it studies inter-action among the various components and sub- components, and
(ii) Second, flow of energy among various components of eco-system which is the essential
determinants of how a biological community function.

(a) Flow of Energy in the Ecosystem

The continuous interaction goes on within an eco-system between components and sub-
components involves the flow of energy and cycling of mineral nutrients. A generalized
diagrammatic representation of energy and mineral movements are given above (Fig. 1). In
this process transfer of energy takes place from one level to another. This is known as trophic
level. Therefore, trophic level is the level or the stage at which food energy passes from one
group to another. To understand it in a better manner we must discuss about food chain and
its associated activities. In the biosphere, there are broadly two groups of living organisms.
Autotrophs and heterotrophs. Based on food habits, these heterotrophs are further sub-
divided into three categories. They are herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. Herbivores are
plant eating animals, carnivores are flesh eating animals and omnivores are both plant and
animal eaters’ organisms.

(b) Food Chain/Food Web

Food chain can be defined as a sequence of

transfer of energy from organisms in one
trophic level to those in another trophic level.
Sun is the major source of energy. It helps in
the growth of plants on the soil and water
bodies. Plants form the basis of food for large
number of herbivores. These herbivores are
used as food substances for carnivores.
Besides, there are omnivores who feed on
plants as well as animal flesh. The solar energy
absorbed by the soil is reflected in the form of
plants and animals. Fig. 3: Food Web

These organisms have a limited cycle and die after some time. Once these organisms die,
another group of organisms start their functioning as they feed on dead material. They help
in decomposing the dead bodies of plants and animals on releasing the energy which is again
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absorbed by the soil to enrich its production of plants. Thus, cycle completes.
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The above said food chains are very simple food chain but food chains are not always so simple
and isolated sequences. Several inter-connected and overlapping food chains present a
complicated pattern. Such patterns are called food web. Food web shows multiple food
chains, multiple relationships and connections. This a more complicated but more realistic
way of showing feeding relationships, as most organisms consume more than one species and
are consumed by more than one species.

Trophic Levels: As we have discussed earlier sun or solar energy is the source for all the plants
for preparation of their food. The energy which is stored by the plants is known as trophic
level I. It becomes the source of energy for the herbivores. Therefore, transfer of energy from
trophic level I to trophic level II takes place when the plant eating animals consume these
plants.

Again, this chemical energy (through foods) consumed by herbivores gets stored at trophic
level II and becomes
source of energy for
the carnivores at
trophic level III.
Carnivores are flesh
eating animals and
depend upon other
animals for food.
These animals require
a lot of energy for
building their tissues. Fig. 4: Food Pyramid

They receive their energy from trophic level II through food consumption. Apart of the
chemical energy from this level III of the food chain is transferred to omnivores at trophic level
IV. Therefore, omnivores are at the top level of the food chain which receives their energy
from all the three levels. So, in a food chain the members at the successive higher levels
becomes smaller in number. When the numbers at successive levels are plotted, they assume
the shape of a pyramid, hence it is called food pyramid or pyramid of numbers. (Fig. 4)

The number of organisms at any trophic level depends upon the availability of food at its lower
level. With an increase in availability of food at the lower level, there is a consequent increase
in the number and variety of organisms at its higher trophic level. Thus, availability of food is
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the main factor which maintains the grand balance of nature. This balance is dynamic and
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fluctuates within certain limits. So, every ecosystem has its own system of mechanism to
control the balance. This happens because in an eco-system there are certain inherent
processes in which nutrients or materials are transferred. Sometimes in a single direction and
sometimes in cycles. Let us discuss some of these cycles.

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